Libyan capital battered by NATO air strikes

LIBYA

Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Photo: Rodrigo Abd, AP

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Comrades mourn the death of Hussein Saad Al Awami, a rebel fighter who was killed Monday during fighting against Moammar Gadhafi troops, during his funeral in Benghazi, Libya, Tuesday, May 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) less

Comrades mourn the death of Hussein Saad Al Awami, a rebel fighter who was killed Monday during fighting against Moammar Gadhafi troops, during his funeral in Benghazi, Libya, Tuesday, May 10, 2011. (AP ... more

Photo: Rodrigo Abd, AP

Libyan capital battered by NATO air strikes

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(05-11) 04:00 PDT Tripoli, Libya --

NATO increased its bombing of Tripoli on Tuesday, carrying out the largest attacks in weeks as rebels appeared to make advances in their efforts to break the siege of the key western city of Misrata.

NATO said its warplanes hit three command-and-control targets in the capital. It said air strikes also hit targets in Mizdah, a town 114 miles south of Tripoli; Sirte, a stronghold of Moammar Khadafy on the Gulf of Sidra; and Misrata, a port 131 miles east of Tripoli and the only rebel-held city in the western part of the country.

The Libyan government took journalists to a hospital in Tripoli that was next door to a government building apparently hit by the attacks. Residents and workers there said the building was either a communications or intelligence center, although a government minder said it was used by the Agriculture Ministry. The hospital also sustained damage.

"We are diminishing Khadafy's capacity to issue orders, to field troops and to fly regime jets," said Italian Brig. Gen. Claudio Gabellini, the chief operations officer of the NATO campaign, in a news conference in Milan.